NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — When we think of meditation, quiet spaces come to mind, but now a New York group is turning that concept upside down.On Thursday, CBS2’s Alice Gainer joined in on what they call “the street retreat.”The subway at rush hour would hardly seem the place to practice meditation, but that’s exactly what one group did — and Gainer joined them. It’s run by an organization called Buddhist Insights — led by monk Bhante Suddhaso.“Today we’ll be practicing ‘loving kindness meditation’ here in the subway,” he explained.Participants were told to send thoughts of love and peace to loved ones and to those in the subway.“This practice is one of bringing up a feeling of unconditional love, and good will,” Suddhaso explained.
Everyone taking part had meditated in more traditional, quiet settings, but never in the subway.It’s the mission of the group to take meditation out of quiet spaces, and into public places. They’ve meditated in a factory, out on a sidewalk, seemingly everywhere.“You can meditate anywhere regardless of how quiet or how loud it is,” Suddhaso said.The message — no more excuses not to meditate.“It’s a little bit like I’m going to start the diet on Monday, or I’m going to go to the gym next week, and then next week and Monday never arrives,” Giovanni Masselli said.In the subway they believe the house is not the obstacle. It’s your attitude towards it.“It’s just sound.
I it’s only a problem if you make it a problem,” Suddhaso said.The meditation can become a source of curiosity, and some straphangers weren’t sure what to make of the unusual sighting.“I see what’s going on. I don’t know what it is though,” one rider said.Two riders actually joined in.
Others were pleased by what they saw.“We can all stand to be a little happier, and it’s great that they’re doing this I think — and it certainly that made my day happier,” Jacob Herman said.“I think that’s wonderful they’re doing in that it’s very needed, very needed right now,” Matthew Zimmerman added.It can take a little getting used to, but CBS2’s Gainer eventually got the hang of it.“At first I kept hearing the noises, but after a while it was easy to drown that out, so to be able to just put that aside, and sort of focus on my own thoughts, I was surprised by that,” Gainer said.“You can find inner peace wherever you are — even in the middle of New York City,” Suddhaso said.
All of Buddhist Insights’ events are free and open to the public.
Source: Seen At 11: Meditate On The Subway During A ‘Street Retreat’ « CBS New York
It seems unlikely — but the idea’s been floating around for several days now, and so far she’s not rejecting it. For what it’s worth, Secretary Clinton, we’d love to see you run for mayor. New York City needs you.Yes, we were highly critical of Hillary Clinton in the runup to Election Day. But that was the race for the White House, where she offered a program far to the left of the nation’s center.Not so in New York, where she’d be dead-center in the city’s Democratic majority. Progressive, but not obsessed with proving it — nor with trying to use the mayoralty to become a national leader. Passionate for social justice, but not an ideologue who’ll stick by homeless or affordable-housing policies that are clearly failing.Above all else, she’d actually focus on doing the job. Clinton is a famously diligent worker — one who shows up on time and puts in the hours. And New York needs a mayor who’ll run herd on city government.The incumbent has handed the work of running the city off to one or two deputies, while he spends his time on politics and p.r. stunts. And it shows — in the details those overworked deputies let slip, like that Rivington Street nursing-home flip, and in the crises that go too long unacknowledged, from the Bronx outbreak of Legionnaire’s disease to the surge in street homelessness.Clinton is a fighter and a problem-solver. For eight years, she was a fine senator for this state, working relentlessly on 9/11 recovery and also for constituents in areas far from the media spotlight.Sure, she’d need to become a city resident, and spend months building ties to Gotham’s neighborhoods. But she’s hardly a stranger to the city, nor it to her.Nor does any local Democrat seem both willing and able to seriously challenge Mayor de Blasio for reelection — yet he needs to be challenged, indeed needs to be replaced.Plus, her national stature would bring serious benefits: She’d be a lot harder for Gov. Cuomo to bully than the current mayor — and tougher for Washington to ignore.Nor would she need to sell herself to the city’s special interests to win the job — another huge improvement over the incumbent.What’s in it for her? Well, her presidential run shows her appetite for continued public service. And while Gracie Mansion isn’t the White House, it’s no consolation prize: New York’s mayor is famously “the second-toughest job in America” — and you traditionally have your own foreign policy, too.While it’s not the glass ceiling she hoped to break, New York has never had a woman mayor. Isn’t it past time for that to change?
